Aontú Deputy Leader Gemma Brolly has described a new MLA pay rise as ‘disgraceful’ when compared to the remuneration and pressure placed on teachers, nurses and other valued public servants.
Speaking today, the East Derry rep said:
“The news today that MLA’s are to receive a 27% pay increase is genuinely disgraceful. In recent weeks and months we have heard from teachers, nurses and other people working hard in the public sector about the pressures they face and the need for more funding, yet we can see clearly today where the focus of Stormont lies. The responsibility that principals are facing in our education sector is pushing many to consider industrial action, and yet compared with MLAs who operate in a vacuum of self-imposed inactivity, it is the latter who receive a huge payrise.
MLA’s and parties have conspired to give themselves an undeserved rise that they have refused for valuable public servants such as teachers and nurses. They deliberately let the previous independent pay panel lapse after 2016 and concocted a new process that would almost certainly approve massive pay hikes. At the time the new process was announced, MLAs boldly predicted they would not expect to see bumper pay rises – what is being proposed is around an extra £14,000 a year – for what?
Every mainstream party backed this process in legislation in the Assembly sheepishly, whilst people wait days in A+E and those keeping the lights on see their pay squeezed and their rates go up. It is further proof that those in the Stormont bubble couldn’t care less about our public services, the machine they belong to simply wants to look after itself.”
ENDS
CLANRYE NEWS 